From Renaissance humanism, embodied by figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus of Rotterdam, who encouraged and simultaneously influenced critical thinking and the direct observation of reality, to the Protestant Reformation, with Martin Luther striving to forge a new relationship between the believer and the sacred texts, and finally to today’s natural defence of human rights, it is not difficult to discern the invisible thread that indisputably links these different expressions of individuality.

You have probably already worked it out: it is freedom.

A situation in which modern Europe moves with devoted confidence, mindful of its history, which has been marked by momentous turning points in the liberation of the individual from the unawareness of being a mere spectator to their own triumphs and defeats.

Freedom is a choice, but why is it that in Europe, where the highest degree of free will is guaranteed, millions of people experience the loneliness they so often lament?

Social alienation is one of the greatest challenges facing Europe today: the ‘old’ continent has gradually replaced a sense of belonging with choice.
Once upon a time, you were someone’s child, a member of a community, a villager; now you are an autonomous individual. What is your value, apart from the role assigned to you by society? Is it possible simply to be, without belonging?
These are questions that concern the European reality and are inevitably intertwined with reasons that go beyond mere personal beliefs.

According to the first EU-wide survey carried out by the European Commission between November and December 2022, 13% of Europeans say they feel lonely most of the time, whilst 35% felt lonely at least occasionally during the same period.

But you don’t need to be an expert in statistics and opinion polls to open a Pandora’s box that shares with the myth only the notoriety of the damage it causes – and certainly not the secrets that are revealed every day on social media: young people unable to build lasting relationships, fleeting friendships and increasingly fragile emotional bonds.

The breakdown of traditional bonds has undoubtedly contributed to the weakening of many social and historical networks; people have less stable families to lean on and rely upon in order to experience social interaction as a natural extension of the family environment, associating the sense of shared belonging with an unmet need that is then reflected beyond the walls of their homes.

As early as the dawn of the new millennium, the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman discussed the concept of ‘liquid modernity’ in his essay of the same name: the modern world – and not just the European one – was now focused solely on itself, driven by an unceasing freedom that rendered every kind of aspiration insatiable.

But is this the earthly evil afflicting European society today?
Do we really crave too much?
Or has the absence of essential needs simply driven us to seek well-being in virtual worlds where we can exist without running the risk of revealing our true needs?

Because at present, pretending to be fine is less dangerous than admitting to a sense of unease born of freedom. Paradoxically, when our thinking is limited, our energies are focused on seeking a social space in which to exercise the right to be dissatisfied with our own lives; yet when that goal is achieved, the inner voids do not forgive this victory, which smacks of existential defeat.

However, the solution cannot and must not involve giving up the freedoms we have won: no one would want to return to a society in which the family, religion or the community determine an individual’s fate.

After years of struggle, man is compelled to embrace the legacy of free will, the power of which no longer lies in the emancipation of the individual, but rather in enabling him to establish new boundaries within which to learn to engage with the mirror-like solitude of the other: the mirror can only reflect what is placed before it.

Is modern Europe ready to take on the responsibility of forging an identity that teaches us how to live together?